How did women (and perhaps men) deal with menstrual cycles before the inventions of pads or tampons? I've read vague discriptions of just rags or cloth, but as a female, this seems extremely ineffective.
Recently /u/caffarelli answered a question about how US ladies dealt with menstruation that you might enjoy. There used to be a whole section in the FAQ dedicated to menstruation throughout the ages but it seems to have disappeared.